An architect with experience in designing animal shelters has compared four “best practice” shelters and made four recommendations for a new DeKalb County animal shelter. All of them expand upon the existing 22,000-square-foot shelter off Memorial Drive, a dilapidated building that can house 484 animals.
• Option one: 69,386-square feet interior and exterior covered space, to handle 345 dogs and 150 cats. Projected to cost $13.9 million.
• Option two: 56,844-square feet interior and exterior covered space, to handle 345 dogs and 150 cats. Projected to cost $11.4 million.
• Option three: 52,621-square feet interior and exterior covered space, to handle 345 dogs and 150 cats. Projected to cost $10.4 million.
• Option four: 40,844-square feet interior and exterior covered space, to handle 251 dogs and 244 cats. Projected to cost $8.1 million.
DeKalb County’s year-long effort to improve how it treats homeless pets looks to be pricier than first thought.
Last year, after months of study and years of pressure from animal advocates, the county agreed it would build a new animal shelter next to DeKalb-Peachtree Airport in Chamblee. Early plans, based on a 2008 report, called for the 31,000-square-foot shelter to cost $8.1 million.
Tuesday, though, the county unveiled four options for a new shelter that will be able to house 375 dogs and 150 cats to handle current projected need through 2025. The 57,000-square-foot shelter that advocates pushed for will cost $11.4 million.
Interim CEO Lee May said the increase in cost and size are based on more updated data, looking at the best practices that reduce euthanasia rates and increase animal adoptions.
A 2011 report from a citizen task force called the current shelter off Memorial Drive a “chamber of horrors” with serious health hazards such as mold and bug infestations. More than 60 percent of animals historically had failed to make it out of the shelter alive.
“We know we want to do better, but we have to decide on a budget,” May said. “We want to make sure we get it right the first time.”
The county has made significant improvements, according to reports released Tuesday. Its euthanasia rate has dropped to 20 percent since July 1, when it outsourced its shelter operations to the nonprofit LifeLine Animal Project.
LifeLine also received $66,500 in outside grants to help it provide 1,165 free spay and neuter surgeries to DeKalb pets and another 1,067 low-cost surgeries, according to a progress report.
“We are very proud of providing our efforts to the community,” said LifeLine executive director Rebecca Guinn. “The way we care for our pets is really a barometer of how we care for each other and how safe our communities are.”
Providing that care, though, doesn’t come cheap. DeKalb pays LifeLine about $2 million a year to handle all animal services except pickup and cruelty investigations done by the police department.
It has also used $1.24 million in federal stimulus money to buy the Chamblee property where the new shelter will be built. That leaves another $1.5 million in federal cash to help with construction.
The county has set aside about $6.5 million in local money for the new shelter but said a final price tag won’t be known until it can accept bids on the project.
That won’t happen until commissioners agree on a general size and what services – such as greenspace around the shelter for dog runs – the new facility will include. The board may also decide to build the shelter in phases, to spread out the cost.
Commissioners are scheduled to revisit those specifics at their May 20 meeting. Once they give direction to staff, it will take about six weeks for the bidding process to close and evaluations to begin on what the county wants to build.
“I need to see it,” Commissioner Larry Johnson said of proposed designs. “Making a decision right now is not in the best interest of taxpayers. We need to have more information to do the right thing.”
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An architect with experience in designing animal shelters has compared four “best practice” shelters and made four recommendations for a new DeKalb County animal shelter. All of them expand upon the existing 22,000-square-foot shelter off Memorial Drive, a dilapidated building that can house 484 animals.
• Option one: 69,386-square feet interior and exterior covered space, to handle 345 dogs and 150 cats. Projected to cost $13.9 million.
• Option two: 56,844-square feet interior and exterior covered space, to handle 345 dogs and 150 cats. Projected to cost $11.4 million.
• Option three: 52,621-square feet interior and exterior covered space, to handle 345 dogs and 150 cats. Projected to cost $10.4 million.
• Option four: 40,844-square feet interior and exterior covered space, to handle 251 dogs and 244 cats. Projected to cost $8.1 million.
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